What’s Fueling California’s Wildfires?

FRESNO, Calif. (KMJ) — Wildfires in the Sierra Nevada are now charring high-elevation forests, which historically, have seldom burned.

New research from the John Muir Institute of the Environment at UC Davis blames climate change, and forest-management practices.

Investigators, who analyzed more than century’s worth of data, add that record-low snowpack, increases the chances of large, destructive fires, that move high into the mountain range.

For decades, wildfires rarely burned above the 8,000-foot elevation, but more recently, multiple fires have burned at, or above that level. Researchers say that also has implications for forest restoration.